Tour Mitt Romney’s endangered La Jolla beach house

Picture a 3,000 square foot home, exhibiting the Spanish style perfected along San Diego’s La Jolla beach. It’s price tag, $12,000,000 reflects its rarity: it is one of very few of that size ever allowed to be built so close to the ocean on the pristine slice of coastal land. In fact, according to Celebrity Networth, only 35 beach front homes exist in La Jolla.

Hello, and maybe goodbye, beach house! Photo via Business Insider

Soon though, if Mitt Romney’s plans go through, this one won’t exist anymore. In its place, a mansion more than twice the size, equipped with a 3,600-square foot basement, outdoor shower area, and an elevator dedicated to moving cars from one level to the next. And, if you are unclear about the form and function of this “car elevator,” to quote SF Gate’s Politics Blog, “you can’t afford one.”

But Romney, whose wealth has been well publicized in the media during this, his second bid for the Republican nomination, can. He can also afford a lobbyist to help him push the renovation plans through the San Diego’s construction approval process.

To help facilitate the construction plans, Romney has paid San Diego attorney Matthew A. Peterson $21,500 since 2008 to lobby city officials for the renovation after dropping out of the 2008 GOP presidential primary.

POLITICO went on to verify the plans with San Diego officials.

The construction requires tearing down the existing home to rebuild the larger– much larger–version 2.0. Perhaps because the plans are so complex, neither the lobbyist nor the Romney reputation has successfully swayed neighbors, the Coastal Commission, and the San Diego Building Department. At least, not yet. So in the meantime, the home sits benignly, invitingly, as it has for over 70 years. Your tour awaits.